A blog by Timothy J. Hammons

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Thor Ragnarok? Nope!

This morning, I was talking with Heidi about what I planned on doing with the boys today since we have the entire day together due to a school holiday. There have been times when I thought that taking them to a movie was a good idea, only to be dreadfully disappointed by the entire event. You can read about our dismal experience seeing the latest rendition of Pirates of the Caribbean here. I never wrote about our most recent experience to see a movie, Despicable Me3, but it was the same. We all came out of the theater feeling the movie wasn’t very funny and was nothing but rehash of the earlier movies.

Our distaste of movies seems to be growing.

Hence, the latest. I thought why not take the boys to see Thor. I like the Marvel series. Yes, they can be a tad on the violent side, but the dialogue is usually quite interesting. I admit, that is a weak rationalization especially since I have banned the entire Transformer series from our home due to the excessive violence.

So my mind was almost set on seeing the movie with the boys, and Heidi if she wanted to go. But before I decided, I checked on the parental reviews at IMDB. I have found doing so to be quite helpful and led me to make the decision not to take the boys to see the last Spiderman movie. And by reading the reviews in the parent’s guide, I came to the same conclusion about Thor. There was just enough references to sex that helped me see that the boys didn’t need to see the movie at all. In fact, no one really needs to see that. Follow the link I’ve provided if you want to see more the specifics, but given the following verse from the authoritative word of God:

But fornication and all uncleanness or covetousness, let it not even be named among you, as is fitting for saints; 4 neither filthiness, nor foolish talking, nor coarse jesting, which are not fitting, but rather giving of thanks.

I’ve decided not to even name what really bothered me.

What was even more interesting was that on the same day that I came to this conclusion, Tim Challies made a plea that as Christians, and the filth surrounding the entire industry and culture, that we need to stop supporting Hollywood. Challies writes:

I think we as believers need to think seriously at this juncture about our participation in this world, this world which is proving itself to be absolutely vile, absolutely full of the worst kind of sin and depravity. To some degree, at some point, by watching it, we’re supporting it. By buying those movies, by buying tickets to those movies, we’re supporting this entire industry and all the depravity that lies behind it, just a couple thoughts as we think about Harvey Weinstein, as we think about the growing scandal. We as Christians, I think this is a time for us to seriously consider our relationship to Tinseltown.

I agree. We need to become the culture that Christ called us to be: holy and separate from the world. I do not mean isolated, or withdrawn into a monkish enclave. What I mean is that we need to turn from Hollywood and the entertainment industry as much as possible. We need to be more concerned about honoring God than succumbing to the flesh and indulging in entertainment. We need to turn from being movies addicts, do become lovers of His Law in our lives. We need to cut off those things that prevent us from being holy.

Quite frankly, the typical movies does ensnare the believer because they exalt some area of life that is contrary to the fruits of the Spirit. Instead of pointing to those things that are noble, movies tend to focus on those sins we are to avoid. At the very least, we need to reconsider what we will and will not watch. I’m finding that the more I look to what I want my boys to become as they grow to be men, the less likely I am to let them watch the movies being produced by Hollywood.

Given that, I think we will spend the day doing other things, like going to the driving range to hit golf balls and cleaning the fish tank.